Looking Up to Our Father
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsBig Idea: God shows us how a father cares for his children. Key Question: Who are we to God as his children? 1. We are the beneficiaries of his mercy. (vv. 6-10, 12) 2. We are the focus of his love. (vv. 8b, 11) 3. We are the recipients of his compassion. (vv. 13-14)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction/Tension
Introduction/Tension
Is it a good thing to think of and talk about God as our Father?
For probably most of us, we could say this depends on our own experience with our fathers.
Is the relationship of a child to a father a good thing? From my experience it’s been pretty good.
My dad, David, has always been my dad.
He came from a long line of dads… on his father’s side [Nick Thune joke]
Yes, that is a dad joke for all of you.
Some you are just now getting that.
My dad loves Christ, he loves my mom and has been faithful to her for 49 years.
He has been an good model of Christ to my younger brother and I.
His grandchildren would tell you they enjoy and look up to him.
He has not done it all perfectly, but in many ways, he’s been a father worth imitating and following.
I’m grateful for my dad.
But I also recognize the experience I’ve had with a father isn’t the same that many of you have had.
Your experience with your father’s might have been an experience of abandonment, absence, abuse, or maybe something else that does not incline you to think really positively about God being described as a father.
One of the specific wounds that many carry from their father is a debilitating lack of understanding and identity and value.
In that was a lack of affection or affirmation from your dad.
He would never encourage, or affirm you.
You never knew where you stood with him.
You often wondered if he was angry or if in some way he really even cared at all.
I think the question that many have about their dad is “who am I to my father?”
Because that’s our experience, we carry the same question towards God when he is described as father.
Who are we to God as his children?
Now this message isn’t for dad’s today specifically. I’m not going to give you any practical “father tips” - we’ll give you something after the service to help you work on your “Dad body”
But I’m not going to tell you how be a better dad today.
No, I want us to open up and go to Psalm 103 this morning as a way to think about God - that’s why we are here.
We are here to grow in our understanding of God and our relationship with him.
If we’re going to do that we have to confront the challenge that calling God our Father brings into our lives today.
Our goal this morning is to understand better who God is so that we can better understand truly who we are.
I want us to see this morning who we are to God as his children.
David is attributed as the writer of this Psalm - and he is calling out for us to “bless the Lord”
It’s a Psalm of praise!
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
But there is a key action for us in blessing the Lord. It’s found in verse 2
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
David’s aim is to help us remember who God is, and his perspective towards his children, and that perspective is one full of benefits!
Don’t forget how good God is!
Don’t forget his benefits!
So let’s lean into that - what are those benefits?
vv. 6-14 forms the declaration of God’s benefits, as a father, towards his children.
We could identify three of them.
Three benefits of having God as your Father!
If you have God for your Father…
You are the beneficiary of mercy (Psalm 103:6-10)
You are the beneficiary of mercy (Psalm 103:6-10)
After the prologue of praise, David gets into the heart of why God’s children should praise and bless him.
Verses 6-10 give us a vantage point of God’s distinct nature.
This is David getting right at the heart of God’s character
We are meant to consider who God is.
But more than just dry theological facts, he wants us to experience God for us.
Verse 10 could be the pinnacle summary:
“He does not deal with us according to our sins”
Or that is to say, he doesn’t treat us and relate with us in the way we deserve.
Put that in you mind as you consider what David says:
6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
God is righteous and just and he works (or manufactures) righteousness and justice for those who are the victims of injustice and oppression.
He’s a God who sets all things right and brings about perfect equity and justice.
Derek Kidner, a OT scholar, says:
God, “puts straight not only the record … but the whole situation and the people concerned.”
He’s a justice working God - which is both bad news and good news for us.
It’s bad news because we are the ones who are doing wrong. We’re the one’s bringing about injustice.
Our sin enslaves us, and others, and breaks what God has made good and right.
So we deserve God’s anger and his justice towards our sin!
Yet, it’s good news because we are also victims of unrighteousness and injustice.
We as sinners living in a sin-broken, sin-dominated, sin-wrecked world are crushed under the oppression of Satan, sin, and the world.
God, our Father, will make all things right! He will bring justice for his children.
How does he do that?
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
He reveals himself.
God condescends to his creatures and speaks our language and tells us who he is.
David here brings us back to the children of God, Israel, set in captivity in Egypt with Moses as the Mediator.
God liberated the people of Israel from Egypt’s bondage and brought them out to take them to a land flowing with milk and honey.
And in the wilderness he revealed, or disclosed, himself to them.
He told them here’s who I am.
In Exodus 33-34 we see the encounter:
Moses pleaded with God to see his glory, to know him… not merely know ideas or abstracts about God, but to know him like a friend.
And God agreed:
19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
And so he hid Moses in the side of the mountain, and passed before him and revealed himself, proclaiming his name.
What Ps 103:8-10 states is almost verbatim Exodus 34:6.
Who is this God?
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
God’s works are righteousness
His ways are known
What are those works and ways??? Towards his children they are nothing but mercy and grace!
This is the fundamental nature of God - God is love
He is merciful - not giving us what we deserve
He is gracious - giving us what we do not deserve
Slow to anger - not flying off the hook or being short-fused with rage
Abounding/Abundant in steadfast faithful love - there is no limit or insufficiency to his love
Does not always chide - that is he won’t always hold the verdict against us
Keep his anger forever - he won’t hold a grudge or let rage against his children mount up
This is God’s fundamental character - his very nature!
So that verse 10 can say:
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
His fundamental disposition towards his children is utterly different - he does not deal with us according to our sins and iniquities.
Apply
Friends, here is why you should desire and pursue having God as your Father
He is positively disposed to his children.
His inclination to those who are his is love and tenderness and grace and mercy.
That mercy is only for those who are his children
His children are those who turn from their sin and rebellion against God in repentance and embrace and receive Jesus Christ as their hope by faith.
John says,
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
You can get in on this mercy as God’s child today by turning from your sin and believing/trusting in Jesus and who he is and what he has done for you by dying in your place on the cross and being raised to life again on the third day.
If you are his child, God’s disposition towards you is not one of anger, disappointment, frustration, or displeasure.
He delights in you.
Yes, the Lord as our best father will and can discipline his children.
12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
But his discipline is on the the ones he loves and delights.
If you are God’s child, then you have mercy aimed right at you!
That’s who God is towards his children.
The benefits continue: If you have God as your Father then…
You are the focus of his love (Psalm 103:11-12)
You are the focus of his love (Psalm 103:11-12)
Here David gets a little spacey - not in the absent-minded way, but he wants to make a comparison.
He makes two.
How much does God love his his children?
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
Now the purpose isn’t to get your 21st century physics calculators, or Google NASA and ask “how far away is space” (62 miles!)
The answer isn’t God’s love is 62 miles great.
The comparison here is to think about how vast and great and distant the heavens are from earth…
The heavens stretch on far beyond our imaginative ability - beyond our comprehension.
We can’t even measure out the sum total of the heavens!
So it is with God’s love - it’s an infinite and unmeasurable amount of love!
All aimed right at his children!!!
When David says “towards those who fear him” he is speaking about all those who put their hope and trust in Christ.
He is not talking about the sinful fear or dread about God as a judge and consuming fire.
He’s talking about the awe and reverence given to someone we love - a filial fear!
Filial is an adjective used to describe the relationship between a child and parent
Those who trust and hope in God are those who fear him… and his love is infinite towards his children.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing can separate God’s children from his love!
But some will object here - what about my sin?? Doesn’t sin separate me from God and break the relationship?
Aren’t I in jeopardy with God in my sin?
David breaks out another spacial comparison.
Here’s what God does for his children.
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
The end of the verse states that God “removes our transgressions from us”
God doesn’t separate himself from his sinful children, he separates their sins from them.
He doesn’t go anywhere - he deals with our sins!
He’s like a doctor who separates a tumorous mass that is destroying the body from the body so it can live.
He takes away the very thing that has killed us.
How far does he separate our sins from us?
As far as east is from the west?
How far is east from west??
Well let me help you picture this directionally.
Why didn’t he say “as far as north is from south?”
Well, and this is a fun one you “flat earthers” have to account for…
If you walk north, eventually, you’ll be going south.
If you fly south, eventually you’ll end up flying north.
The closer you get to ultimate north the closer you are to heading south…
But the farther east you travel… you’ll never run into west. Always heading east.
If you go west, young man, you’ll just keep on heading west.
The two will never intersect.
That’s how far God removes our sins from us.... infinitely!
How is that the case?
Go back to Romans 8:31-34
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
God is for us!
God gave his Son - Jesus - to remove our sins!
Christ, being our perfect substitute and sacrifice took our sins upon himself and suffered the ultimate penalty for our sin on our behalf.
So Paul asks
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
NOTHING!
If you have God as your father, you are the focus of his love. His delight and pleasure is in you, not because of what you have done or what you have not done.
But because of what Christ has done for you!
Nothing shall distance or separate you from the love of God in Christ
Only your sin shall be removed - infinitely as far as east is from west!
It’s worth the question, do you have God as your father??? If so, his smile and love is aimed right at you!
So if we’re going to not forget his benefits then we need to remember that if God is our father:
We are the beneficiaries of his mercy
We are the focus of his love
And third...
You are the recipients of his compassion (Psalm 103:13-14)
You are the recipients of his compassion (Psalm 103:13-14)
Basically, I’m saying the same thing three ways…
David now brings it into the context of the family. Here’s another way of seeing God’s heart towards his children:
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Now don’t let the warped and perverted experiences of imperfect fathers toward their children disrupt the truth that is here.
Ideally - fathers show compassion toward their children.
Ideally, fathers recognize the weakness and dependency and need of their children, and they supply what is lacking!
Some of the best words out there as a father are “dad, I need help!”
That’s God’s inclination as well.
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
God knows what we are - dust.
He made humanity out of the dust of the ground… we’re not super-strong, infinitely powerful, immortal beings.
We’re essentially dirt.
AND HE KNOWS THAT AND IS OKAY WITH THAT
He supplies our weakness and infirmity out of his compassion and care.
He has compassion to those who fear him.
What this means is massive for us!
Friends, God isn’t repulsed by our need or weakness.
It’s a lie from the pit of hell that you’ve got to get spiritually strong to get God’s attention.
He’s not inclined with compassion to the strong and put together and powerful and self-sufficient.
God doesn’t help those who help themselves.
His care is for his kids who know they are weak, needy, insufficient children.
The Gospel writers tell us that Jesus saw it this way too.
All three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) tell this story - it’s that important to our understanding of who God is:
13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
Jesus gets “indignant” - or angry at wrong-doing with his disciples!
Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
God’s kingdom is for those who see their need, weakness, infirmity and inability and say “dad, help!”
What does that mean for us?? We have a strong, capable, perfect, compassionate Heavenly Father that welcomes and receives us!
7 God is good, a hiding place in tough times. He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help,
Good news, friends!
The door is wide open for anyone to walk through on God’s love.
The adoption agency is open and placement in God’s family is a sure thing for all those who will trust in Christ!
His invitation is to his children who are tired, weary, weak, downtrodden, heavy-laden and he says “I will give you rest!”
If God is your father, you are the recipient of his compassion.
He loves you!
Conclusion
Conclusion
These three benefits are really one… and they are so huge.
If you have God for your father, then you are the recipient of everything good and wonderful and holy and eternal.
Every blessing in the heavenly places is yours.
But to have this you have to have God as your Father.
You can’t have the benefits of being his child without having him as your Father.
But if you do, through faith in Jesus Christ… then you’re perspective and view of fatherhood should all be formed by who he is for you!
You are his child!
Mercy, love, compassion are your because he is God!
He is full of mercy, abounding in steadfast love, compassionate to all who fear him.
He’s totally worth having as your Father!
Let the clear and loving reality of who God is define father for you, and enjoy his love towards you forever.
And friends, BLESS THE Lord!
Bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits.
AMEN!
